Australian Music Week Film Festival

Australia Music Week is set to kick off later this month and this year, they’ll be launching the first ever Australian Music Week Film Festival arrives this October, screening a program of World and Australian Premieres across two venues from October 31st until November 3rd. The festival accompanies the annual Australian Music Week conference, which takes over Cronulla Beach for three days just outside of Sydney.

The festival will open with the Australian Premiere of the documentary Take Me To The River, presented in conjunction with the Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau. In the acclaimed documentary, Terrence Howard narrates the tale of several generations of award-winning Memphis and Mississippi Delta musicians who have come together to create a historic new album they hope will transcend race and gender differences. The screening will take place at Event Cinemas on George Street at 7.30pm on Tuesday, 31st October.

The rest of the program will take over the GU Film House in Cronulla, with nightly feature screenings across three nights and a special short film and music video program to help close out the festival, showcasing filmmakers from Australia and all around the world. November 1st will open with a special program dedicated to women in music, with Play Your Gender (Canada) direct from the Melbourne International Film Festival as well as the world premiere of the Australian documentary Breaking The Mould, which features guest appearances from the likes of The Jezabels, Katie Noonan, The Grates, Jebediah, Abbe May, Stonefield, Grace Knight (Eurogliders), Regurgitator, Mia Dyson and Mental As Anything.

Also direct from MIFF, the festival is excited to hold the first NSW screening of Something Quite Peculiar: The Life and Times of Steve Kilbey (UK/Australia), and are delighted to welcome Steve Kilbey (The Church) to the festival, who will appear in a special Q&A after the screening. The festival will close with a special 30th Anniversary screening of the classic rock documentary Australian Made, which will also be accompanied by a very special Q&A to be announced soon.

A music video program accompanies the short film program, which will screen together on Friday, November 3rd, focusing on Australian artists including Confidence Man, Vera Blue, WAAX, CLYPSO, Cosmo Thundercat, Daggy Man, Wet Lips and Hachiku, directed by filmmakers from all over the world.

Special guest filmmakers and as well as talent from the films will be at select screenings throughout the week, with Q&As and introductions taking place throughout the program. These details will be revealed in the coming weeks.

Festival programmer Larry Heath (also the Director of the National Live Music Awards) said of the lineup reveal, “We’re thrilled to debut a brand new Australian film festival with such a vibrant selection of music focused films from all over the world. We received thousands of submissions, and our only regret is that we couldn’t fit more into the program. I hope everyone finds the time to come out and be the first in Australia – and in some cases the world – to see these powerful and important works.”

The full list of included films and music videos are below.

Feature Films

Take Me To The River  (USA)

Play Your Gender (Canada)

Breaking The Mould (Australia) accompanied by audio engeneering (Germany)

Something Quite Peculiar: The Life and Times of Steve Kilbey (UK/Australia)

Decks and the City (Australia)

Garage Rockin’ Craze (Japan/Canada)

Australian Made (Australia)

Trenches of Rock (USA)

Short Film Program

Sound of the Future: HAITI (USA)

Adrift (Australia/France)

Shout at the Ground (New Zealand)

The Music Stops Here (UK)

Partycipation (UK)

Western Jubilee (USA)

Psychedelic Porn Crumpets – Buzz (Australia)

Music Video Program

Wet Lips – Here If You Need

Suss Cunts – Shit Friend

Hachiku – Moonface

Curt Manor – Adelphi Hotel Nightmare

Daggy Man – A Lazy Kind of Pain

Dead Language – The Man Who Killed My Father

WAAX – Wild & Weak

Caves ft. Hannah Joy – Here We Are

Stevie and the Sleepers – Young Again

Cosmo Thundercat – Warning Bell

Vera Blue – Private

Explosions in the Sky – The Ecstatics

Confidence Man – Boyfriend

CLYPSO – YOLO

Hawksley Workman – Small Town Dracula

Tickets to all screenings are on sale now through Event Cinemas, with all screenings at GU Film House in Cronulla (located at 2 – 6 Cronulla Street) just $12 ($10 for CineBuzz members), plus applicable booking fees, while the opening night premiere at Event Cinemas on George Street will attract normal ticket prices.

www.australianmusicweek.com